Texas IAM/Lockheed Martin Strike Comes Home to Maryland

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“We’re here to show Lockheed Martin that we know where they live,” said IAM Local 776 Business Rep Joe Alviar as hundreds of Machinists and their supporters chanted “Stop freezing pensions!” in front of the aerospace giant’s Bethesda headquarters Thursday morning. “And if we need to keep embarrassing them in front of their neighbors, that’s just what we’ll do.” Some 3,800 IAM 776 members have been on strike since April 23; the majority work in Fort Worth, TX, with 150 each at the PAX River NAS in southern Maryland and Edwards AFB in California. “The main issues are health care, pensions and job security,” Alviar told Union City. Lockheed’s demands for health care cutbacks and subcontracting rights were bad enough, Alviar said, but “their insistence on no pensions for new hires was a deal-breaker” and precipitated the strike, now in its fifth week. “We’re proud to be out here supporting our IAM brothers and sisters,” said Elevator Constructor Local 10s Reggie Garner. “It’s just basic solidarity.” - report by Chris Garlock; photo by Bill Burke/Page One